


The Haunting

by MissKita



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Awkward Romance, Creepy, Explicit Language, Gen, M/M, Pining, Weird
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 08:19:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13923129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissKita/pseuds/MissKita
Summary: Something or someone is stalking the royal retinue, and it is wearing a face that doesn't belong.





	The Haunting

**Author's Note:**

> This story is intended to be largely humorous, but there will be disturbing imagery and unsettling moments. This fic was inspired by the terrifying/uncanny valley Not-Ignis mask that Square Enix shared via Twitter on Ignis' birthday. [ Meet the creation they dubbed Not-Ignis.](https://twitter.com/FFXVEN/status/961253448439226368)

It was a dark and stormy night. 

Rain slammed into the Leville in Lestallum. Thunder and lightning flashed across the windows of the hotel room that housed Gladiolus, Ignis, Noctis, and Prompto. While the younger friends were sprawled out in a queen bed on one side of the room, Ignis and Gladiolus occupied the other.

A particularly loud crash of thunder forced Gladiolus from his slumber. He was welcomed to the land of the conscious with a dull headache and a rushing heart. 

It was cold. Even in his sleepy haze, Gladiolus knew it was unusual for the hot, humid city of Lestallum to feel like an icebox, even with the air conditioner running.

He shivered and drew closer to Ignis, pulling the summer sheets tighter around himself. He pulled in as close to Ignis’ body heat as he could until he brushed against him. It wasn’t ideal for a man of his size and girth to share a queen bed with someone of Ignis’ build, but the alternative was being kicked in the face by Prompto whenever they couldn’t afford another hotel room. And bunking with Noctis was out of the question after the last incident.

He didn’t mind it. Sharing a bed with Ignis, as it were. The man was extremely still when he slept, didn’t snore, and was always considerate about sharing the space.

As his heart rate slowed, Gladiolus laid there in the dark, listening to the storm roar overhead for a moment. The mattress creaked as Ignis rolled over onto his side. Ignis breath was warm and pleasant on his cheek. His hand grazed Gladiolus’ thigh.  A twinge of desire slithered through Gladiolus’ body.

“Iggy?” He whispered into the dark. 

After a beat Ignis replied, posh voice husky with sleep. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to intrude on your personal space. Did I cause you to awaken?”

“Nah, the storm did…” Gladiolus replied. The chill in the room was being kept at bay by the heat of Ignis’ body. Part of him wanted to reach out and pull Ignis into an embrace. Blame it on being cold. 

Gladiolus felt him shift closer. “It is rather chilly tonight. It is odd that it is quite cold in Lestallum of all places.”

“Yeah…”

Beneath the hum of the storm, Gladiolus heard their friends shifting in the bed across the room. To avoid waking them up, he spoke closer to where he thought Ignis’ ear was located. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. It was 100 degrees earlier.”

“We’ll need thicker comforters for this,” Ignis mumbled. He felt soft lips brush his cheek and he froze. Ignis mumbled an apology. “Quite sorry. I didn’t realize how close I was.”

Gladiolus chuckled. His heart was beating fast in his chest again for an entirely different reason. “Maybe we could cuddle for warmth?”

“What?” he felt Ignis shift away slightly. 

Gladiolus winced. He was gonna blame his stupidity on sleep deprivation. He’d had feelings for his best friend for years, but they’d become unbearable since they spent so much time together in close quarters on the road now. He was due for a slip-up any day now. “What-whatchu talkin’ bout Iggy?”

“What was that voice?”

Gladiolus coughed. “Nothing.”

Ignis huffed softly. “I thought you said something about ….cuddling?”

“Nah.”

“I’m quite certain that’s what you said.”

“You’re sleep drunk.”

“My ears work perfectly fine, thank you.”

Gladiolus needed a way to change the subject and quick. “Maybe the window is open. Might be letting air in.”

Ignis protested that that didn’t make any sense, but Gladiolus rolled out of bed. His bare feet were freezing as soon as they hit the carpet. He crossed his arms over his chest and rubbed them for warmth as he picked his way across the room, heading for the square of light that was the window. The air conditioner blew cold air on his legs. In the dark, he squatted down and fumbled for the manual controls to turn it off. Once cold air stopped blowing, he stood upright and pushed the curtains apart to peer through them. 

The rain was coming down thick on the other side of the window. The street lights and the Disc of Cauthess in the distance were little more than shapeless blobs. Visibility was poor, but something made Gladiolus look down.

Despite the rain and the fact that they were on the fourth floor, he could make out a blurry, human-shaped figure standing in a circle of light provided by a street lamp. He couldn’t make out a face, but he could tell it was looking up at the hotel.

A chill went down Gladiolus’ spine. He leaned in closer to the window until his nose brushed the cold glass. The figure stood completely still, without an umbrella or anything in the middle of the rain.

“The hell are they doing?” he muttered to himself.

“Gladio?” Ignis called out. “Is everything OK?”

“Yeah,” Gladiolus said, not looking away from the window. “Just some drunk fool standing in the rain.”

“Well, come back to bed. ‘Tis late and we must be off early in the morning.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gladiolus said. He pulled the curtain closed and started to turn away, but he needed to get one more look. He peered through the curtains once more.  “What the fuck?”

It took a lot to throw the Shield of the King off, but what he saw certainly was a contender. 

The figure had raised an arm and hand as if it was greeting him. He was four stories up. There was no way they could see him.

Ignis called out, voice soft but audible. “Are you sure something isn’t the matter?”

The figure didn’t move. It remained in that pose as if it were a statue. 

Gladiolus shook his head. “You’re right. I need rest. I think I’m hallucinating.”

“I told you that second serving of Cup Noodles was a bad idea. Too much sodium.”

“Heh. I should listen to you more often.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them, the figure was gone from the circle of light and the streets were empty and silent.

Frowning, and with a feeling of unease clawing at the pit of his stomach, Gladiolus left the window. He crossed the hotel room and made sure every latch and bolt on the door was locked. He peered through the peephole, but the hallway beyond was empty and silent. There was nothing on the other side of the door except for ugly carpet and a painting of a mermaid. 

“Gladio,” Ignis’ cute, sleepy voice interrupted his paranoia. “Come to bed this instant.”

“Okay okay, I’m coming.” 

Gladiolus rejoined his friend in bed. He laid on his back, face turned to the door. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. Despite the fact that he’d shut off the air conditioner, there was still a chill in the room.

Ignis shifted next to him. “We can complain about the temperature to the front desk in the morning. They would be loathed to have the king of Lucis and his royal retinue as disgruntled customers.”

“Yeah.”

They laid in silence, listening to the storm. Ignis shifted next to him again, first an arm brushing, then his knee bumping into him. Ignis clucked his tongue and huffed in frustration. “I’m cold. I know you weren’t serious about your earlier suggestion, but would it be…tolerable? I can’t sleep like this. And I’m quite sure you can’t either.”

All Gladiolus’ thoughts about the weirdo in the rain were dashed. Trying not to appear too eager, he raised an arm over Ignis’ head to give him an opening. “Come on over.”

“Lovely. Thank you,” Ignis said with just a hint of awkwardness.

He mouthed a swear to the Astrals as Ignis’ body pressed into his side and his touch slid across Gladiolus’ abdomen and around his waist. As best as he could, knowing this would be his only excuse to ever do this, he turned over on his side as well, interlocking their legs and drawing Ignis into a close embrace, so that their heads shared the same pillow. 

Ignis’ soft gasp was warm on Gladiolus face. He grinned to himself and willed away the boner already creeping up in his pajama pants. Keeping one arm around Ignis, he curled the other beneath his own head for comfort. 

“Better?” Gladiolus mumbled.

“Quite. Much warmer,” Ignis said softly. “Good night.” His friend patted him on his back and then let his hand go idle. 

“Night.”

His heart was beating fast in his chest, and he knew there was no way he was gonna fall asleep anytime soon with Ignis in his arms like this. Instead, he closed his eyes and focused on committing this moment and its sensations to memory. 

Ignis, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem with falling asleep. After about 20 minutes, the man’s breathing slowed. 

Something made Gladiolus open his eyes. From his positioning, he was now facing the window. He stared into the dark, looking at the square of light that streamed weakly through the curtains. Just as sleep was clouding his mind, a shadow darkened the window. 

He blinked. It was gone.

_ I really gotta lay off the Cup Noodles. _

Closing his eyes again, he focused on the man in his arms until he drifted into an uneasy slumber.    
  
  



End file.
